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A Fifth Dimension:Undeletion policy
This is an overview of policy for reversing the decision to delete content from A Fifth Dimension. Deletion in A Fifth Dimension generally occurs for indisputable, clear and valid reasons, according to our deletion policy. However, there may be some cases where the deletion criteria are not so clearly met, things are deleted by mistake or deleted before conditions can be met. For this purpose, deletion review pages have been established. List of deletion review pages These are pages established for the undeletion of deleted content, organized by content and deletion type. * * * * * Undeletion process This all starts with a request for undeletion on one of the aforementioned deletion review pages. The request will then typically remain listed for a period of two weeks (14 days) to allow the community to discuss the pending undeletion and either "Endorse" the undeletion or "Oppose" the undeletion. At the end of the two-week period, if there have been at least three votes and a majority in favor of undeletion, the page will be undeleted. If the page receives less than three votes, the page will remain deleted. (for exceptions or special cases, see below) Instructions for using deletion review pages Requesting undeletion To make a request that a page be restored, do the following: ; List the page title. : List the page title in the undeletion votes section below under its own sub-heading (e.g., List of Rod Serling's favorite ice creams ). Be sure to be as accurate as possible; case sensitivity and capitalization matters. ; List your argument. : List the best case for having the page restored, presumably addressing any of reasons that led to the page's deletion in the first place. This may be the most important part of the request because it will convince users to take a side, so be thorough, precise and convincing, but avoid overstating your case and/or providing misleading information. ; List type of deletion. : List whether the page was deleted by speedy deletion or (normal) deletion. Speedy deletions tend to be more urgent cases and typically more clear-cut violations of policy by nature and therefore may have a higher hurdle to jump to be undeleted. This does not mean, however, that this is impossible (e.g., if a page was deleted for not having a source and a verifiable one is provided to nullify possible copyright infringement; a page deleted because text was used from a copyrighted source, but it has since been released with permission by the author under a free license, etc.). ; Indicate copyright violations. : If the file was removed for possible copyright violations and you now have sources for the information that can be provided, please list links to the source online or other means of reference in your request. Take note that this is one of the categories where deleted content will face a steep climb to undeletion because of the legality involved. ; Reference any deletion discussions. : Include a link to any discussion over the original deletion in the Deletion archive, which states the reasons why it was deleted in the first place. This makes it easy for voters to verify the reason for the deletion's accuracy. Voting for undeletion To cast your vote for undeletion requests, follow these steps: ; Format your vote : Start your response to the undeletion request by using a bullet point to slightly indent the reply underneath the request. This is done by using an asterisk * at the start of a new line. This will create a bullet list for subsequent voters to add to. For more information, see . ; Cast your vote : First, emphasize your response by indicating your vote, either to Endorse or Oppose the undeletion, by placing it to the front of your response. Also, using bold letters , by surrounding your vote by three single quotation marks () (as displayed in the previous line) helps to quickly count the votes for and against or find rebuttals. ; Provide rationale : Tell a little bit about why you support the undeletion or do not. Try to keep the response concise, but be certain to adequately express your opinion and cover any concerns that you may have. Responses to the comments should be indented with each response, using the combination of colon and asterisk: :*. For more information, see . An example of voting A common listing for an undeletion request may look something like this: Voting results All votes will be ended after '''fourteen days (except in the rare case of "Vote but no majority") to prevent a vote for undeletion from continuing indefinitely. The following outcomes are the results of votes for undeletion: # Administrative undeletion : In cases where a page has obviously been deleted in a manner not according to deletion policy, then an administrator may undelete the page immediately without waiting for the results of the vote for undeletion—even concerning candidates for speedy deletion. In all other cases, the good faith of the administrator will be assumed and the voting process will continue. #* It is good practice to inform the administrator who originally deleted the page of the undeletion and the reason for it, especially in such cases that did not follow deletion policy. # Early endorsement : If, after 7'' days have passed (half of the ''14 day voting period at least six votes to Endorse the undeletion occur and represent a clear majority, the page may be restored by an administrator without prolonging the voting. # If the first result does not occur at any point during the first fourteen days (i.e. at least six votes to Endorse the undeletion are provided), the votes will be tabulated after fourteen days and one of the following results will occur: ## Endorsed undeletion : If the proposed undeletion does receive at least three votes and a majority in favor of its undeletion (e.g., six votes to Endorse but only four to Oppose, or three votes to Endorse but no votes to Oppose), the page will be restored. ## Vote but no majority (endorsed) : If the proposed undeletion does receive at least three votes but not a majority in favor of its undeletion (e.g., three votes to Endorse but five to Oppose), the page may be restored. Think of this as a "tie" where the admin casts the tie-breaking vote based on the criteria for undeletion and how well it addresses the original deletion criteria. In most cases, however, administrators will choose to side with the majority. ## Vote but no majority (extension) : In such as case, the administrators may instead choose to extend the voting for another period of 7'' days if it seems likely that the majority may be obtained. Otherwise, the page is likely to stay deleted—if, for example, there are three votes to Endorse but twelve to Oppose. Regardless of this outcome, if no majority is attained after the full ''21 days has passed, the page will remain deleted. ## Vote but no majority (opposed) : The most likely solution to a "vote but no majority" result, however, is that the administrators will side with the majority and the page remains deleted. A clear majority opposed to the deletion typically points to some basic essential problem in restoring content that has been deleted properly. ## Opposed undeletion : If, after fourteen days have passed, and the proposed undeletion does not gain three votes to Endorse, then the page will remain deleted. When the administrator closes the vote, neither more votes nor editing of responses to change the outcome are accepted. Outcomes should generally be considered to be the final word. Once a vote for undeletion has occurred and the vote has been closed, requesting another vote for the same article is discouraged (and unnecessary). For the most part, if the community of editors and administrators saw reasons why the content should not be restored once, they likely saw no real hope of it ever needing to be undeleted. If they had, they would have mentioned it while the vote for undeletion was still open. If you feel that the subject is of vital use to the project, consider rewriting the material from scratch while avoiding any of the criteria listed for the previous version's original deletion. Note: If administrators vote in the undeletion process they should not be the administrator responsible for making the decision in "Vote but not majority" cases (VR3-2, VR3-3, and VR3-4). This action should be deferred to an uninvolved admin to avoid conflict of interest. See also * - AFD policy concerning deletion of wiki content. * - AFD policy concerning licensing and copyrighted material. * - List of administrators in A Fifth Dimension. * - Archive of all deletion discussions for deleted content. * - Archive of all deletion discussions for deleted content. * - Category containing pages related to deletion in AFD. Category:Deletion Category:A Fifth Dimension Policies